After 1 Minute on the Floor, Food Has 10x the Bacteria as After 5 Seconds

By Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg

The science of dropping your food on the ground reveals surprising lessons in this video from the hit YouTube science series Vsauce (1 million subscribers and counting). The show's founder and host, Michael Stevens, set out to verify the five-second rule, citing research in The Journal of Applied Microbiologyand investigations by others, including Mythbusters, to break the bad news (spoiler alert) that it's no good. "Five seconds is way too long to wait," he warns; "bacteria adhere to dropped food almost immediately." But wait! There's more. Watch the video below to learn how the structure of molecules makes things sticky and why you're about one pound heavier after stepping out of the shower.